Planting wildflowers on a road verge/margin

Pat10

Hi, I have just tidied up a roadside verge approximately 1.2m wide by 300m. What’s left is topsoil. I would really like to plant this in wildflowers/wild meadow. I would very much appreciate advice on how to prepare the soil, what seeds are best and when I should sow. Is it true that over time grass takes over ground that was planted in wildflowers?

Also, there is an old dry flag stone wall running along the verge. I would like to use this stone wall as part of an eco system with the wildflowers. Hopefully the wildflowers and stonewall can support a small ecosystem.

www.wildflowers.ie might be a good place to start? Sandro the business owner gives very detailed advice on how to start and manage a meadow.

I’ve tried to reclaim the rough boundary areas around my garden and add wildflowers, I put months of work into it about 3 or 4 years ago but grass ultimately won out. What I found worked well for me were umbellifer type flowers like yarrow, cow parsley, queen Anne’s lace etc, teasels, poached egg plants. These came back for me despite the grass and attracted plenty of insects. I got my seeds from seedaholic.

I think a lot depends on the site conditions, that will determine what will grow for you.

macraignil

Wildflowers in general are said to thrive better in low nutrient soil so if your plot is too fertile it will favour the grass growth which will out-compete the wildflowers. There is a plant called yellow rattle that is parasitic on grass which might help reduce their dominance. Removing all the organic material each time the area is cut back will also help the nutrient levels stay low.

For the growth of flowers on the stone wall red valerian (centranthus ruber) is a good one to try but it is probably better to get them growing first before planting the small plants into gaps in the stone wall. I saw it growing on walls very frequently and so ordered some seed and here is a video clip showing some that self seeded in my own garden and the original plants I got growing are still going on an inhospitable north facing slope. The above suggestions also sound like good options with yarrow, poached egg plant and cow parsley doing well around here as well. I hope the roads not got too much fast traffic that would run over the bees that the flowers attract.

Happy gardening!

Bill Hook

You could take the most environmentally friendly route of all and see what flowers turn up all by themselves...

https://pollinators.ie/dont-mow-let-it-grow-and-amazing-things-will-happen/

looksee

I would not put in poached egg plant - they are not native and just create a mulch of soft growth that blanks out everything else, and they are rampant.

Bill Hook

Bill Hook wrote: »

You could take the most environmentally friendly route of all and see what flowers turn up all by themselves...

https://pollinators.ie/dont-mow-let-it-grow-and-amazing-things-will-happen/

Yes this approach is best. Wildflowers don't come in packets - they really don't, no matter what it says on the packet. They are wild plants which plant themselves.

The single most important factor in establishing a worthwhile ecosystem is time - there are no real shortcuts. It may have been the case that there was a thriving native ecosystem present before it was "tidied up", however that is moot now.

You will have to reckon with management of the roadside too, who gets to do what with it in future.

Hocus Focus

Deleted User wrote: »

Yes this approach is best. Wildflowers don't come in packets - they really don't, no matter what it says on the packet. They are wild plants which plant themselves.

The single most important factor in establishing a worthwhile ecosystem is time - there are no real shortcuts. It may have been the case that there was a thriving native ecosystem present before it was "tidied up", however that is moot now.

You will have to reckon with management of the roadside too, who gets to do what with it in future.

Also the fact that traffic seems begun to erode the verges very aggressively in the last few years. In Fingal the Council just fill in the new rut at the side of the existing road surface, allowing the traffic to continue to drive in close to the verges, making them even narrower, and collapsing the ditches. In a few years you will have no verge. Grow a big hedge and allow it to grow out towards the road.